Trip to Michigan and Last Training Day

This weekend I went to my brother's house in Michigan. I had such a good time. I hadn't spent a weekend with my kids since Christmas except for a very short visit Easter weekend. I have looked forward to this weekend for a long time. Today, Sue and I took the kids out for ice cream. A good, messy time was had by all. :)
Chocolate peanut butter...yum!

A much too big for him, M&M sundae!

The best eater of them all...rainbow sherbert!

Saturday afternoon, we all went to the museum. It was a lot of fun. We saw a steller performance in the planetarium.Me with my little brother.

Love that grin.

Holly and the kids on the back of the trolley.

TRAINING DAY UPDATE

Well, today I finished my training walks today. I am in Michigan this weekend so I was unable to walk yesterday. So, this morning, Sue and I headed to a local mall to walk 6 miles. I was excited that today was ONLY 6 miles. Man was it hard! I have never been a "mall walker" and now I know why. Talk about boredom. I didn't think we were ever going to be finished! And, it was stinking hot! I was burning up. But, I am done and next Sat. is the race. I am so excited and nervous all at the same time. I can't believe it's here already. I can't believe I have walked every Sat. (except today) since the first weekend in January. By far the most disciplined I have every been about anything. It's been a good experience and it's shown me that when I want to have discipline and will power, I can have. If I can just apply that same determination to my eating, I'd probably be amazed at the results. Well, next time I post, the race will be over and I'll hopefully be posting about my amazing finish. Until next weekend...

Too cute for Words!

What a Day That Will Be!!!

Today was such a blessed day! The whole weekend really was awesome, but today took the cake. After a wonderful service a church, we headed to Grandma Grate's for dinner. Grandma took the lead at dinner and prayed, which brought me to tears. It's when she prays that I feel the closest to her. It's like God gives her back to us as she used to be for a short time. After dinner, my Aunt Marla suggested we bring church to Grandma since she can't get out to church anymore. There were 18 of us gathered in Grandma's living room singing. We sang "Because He Lives," "He Lives," What a Day That Will Be," "When the Roll is Called up Yonder," and a few more I'm sure I'm forgetting. It was such a precious time. Grandma was singing along a little, but mostly raising her hands to the Lord as we sang. It was hard not to get choked up and all of us did at one point. After we sang, Grandma prayed again. She really prayed and cried, just like I remember her doing all my life. She prayed for her children and grandchildren. I remember listening to her and Grandpa pray for us all by name when I was little and used to camp with them. They thought I was asleep, I'm sure, but I used to listen to those prayers and knew I was always uplifted to the throne. That has never left me. Today, I got to have that once more. When I think of "prayer warriors," my Grandma always comes to mind. Today, I felt a renewed faith in the power of prayer. Not just in the things we can gain from praying, but the way it can transform us. Grandma was transformed today as she prayed. God is so good! I am so thankful for His gift of salvation and what this beautiful day means for all of us. What a Day That Will Be!

Another Day of Training

Well, I survived another day of training. I'm here in Ohio this weekend for Easter with my family. My sister Andrea went with me this morning to walk my 9 miles. Our church here has a nice 1 mile walking path. It was freezing cold and windy, but we made it. The beauty of this path is that is is completely flat and easy to walk. I had my fastest time yet, at 161/2 min. miles. We kept that pace from mile one till the end. I thought it might not be quite a mile since my time was so fast, but then I started considering the diffence in this path and the path at Matter park. If I can do all the hills and keep a 17 min. mile pace, then I probably was faster on a completely flat path. So, after discussing it, Andrea and I decided to go with the faster time theory. :)

Record Time

Today was fun! I had suggested that anyone from our group of ladies that wanted to do their training run/walk today at the same time should come on out. It's more fun to have others around even if you're not all walking/running at the same pace. You pass each other and give encouragement. Kind of makes it more interesting. So, there were six of us that met today. Some ran, some did a combination and then there was me walking (with Sue). I thought today would be a breeze. Only seven miles after last week's ten seemed like no big deal. Well, I was wrong. I felt like it was just as hard and just as long...BUT the good news is, I was much faster today. To finish at an 18 min. pace, it would take me 2hrs and 6 min. I finished in 2hrs 30 sec. I was elated! This was a great walk and I was amazed that I upped my pace. I haven't been any faster the last several weeks so I kind of felt like maybe that was as fast as I could go, but today, I was proven wrong. I guess these short little legs can move when they want to. Only 4 weeks till race day!